Wear characteristics of some internally lubricated and reinforced engineering polymer composites

An interesting characteristic of abrasion is the dependence of the wear rate on the particle size of the abrasive grits used to lubricate the abrasive papers. Three types of polymers, PTFE, PA, PI, several of their composites, and three metals were selected for studying the effect of particle size on wear rate. The pins were abraded against Sic abrasive papers of various mesh sizes under constant loading in multi-pass conditions. For some of the polymers and their composites (PA and PEI) the size effect on wear rate was similar to that for the metals. Beyond a critical particle size, no increase in wear was found with increasing particle size. On the other hand, PTFE, PI, and their composites showed the opposite effect. SEM and EDAX were used to investigate the related mechanisms.